ChefTalk.com › ChefTalk Cooking Forums › Cooking Discussions › Food & Cooking › ¿Main product foods from LatinAmerica?
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

¿Main product foods from LatinAmerica?

Poll Results: foods

This is a multiple choice poll
  • 14% (9)
    tomato
  • 14% (9)
    potato
  • 18% (11)
    cacao
  • 18% (11)
    pepper
  • 9% (6)
    corn
  • 3% (2)
    peanut
  • 4% (3)
    pumpkin
  • 8% (5)
    bean
  • 3% (2)
    turkey
  • 4% (3)
    other
61 Total Votes  
post #1 of 27
2/12/08 at 9:15pm
Thread Starter 
In your opinion, which are the main products originally cultivated and developed in LatinAmerica that have had great impact in the Culinary world?




Other:

avocado, vanilla, chili pepper, tobacco, strawberry, pineapple, sweet potato, guava, yucca, and more...
Reply

Featured Stories on ChefTalk.com

Follow ChefTalk on Pinterest!
The Making of a Chef Innovator, without the Pomp
A clinical look at how a restaurant runs
post #2 of 27
2/12/08 at 10:42pm
There's some question as to borders, and what was there before any part of America was Latin America, but I voted tomatoes, potatoes and peppers. Is this a loaded survey?
Reply
post #3 of 27
2/13/08 at 3:04am
You really need to define terms. For instance, I only voted for tomatoes and peppers. But that's because I don't think of Mexico as part of Latin America.

If you include Mexico in that region that corn would have to be included. It's probably had the most influence on world cuisines of any New World food, followed by potatoes---also a Mexican center of origin.

There is some question as to centers of origin for some of the other things on your list. Beans, for instance, are a New World crop, but there were several centers of origin, including North America. Turkey were endemic to the New World, and there are, indeed, five or six species. The largest of them, the Eastern Wild Turkey, is from North America.

Botanically there is no such thing as a pumpkin. There are six species of New World squashes, and "pumpkins" are found in four of them. Squash centers of origin varied throughout the New World.
They have taken the oath of the brother in blood, in leavened bread and salt. Rudyard Kipling
Reply
post #4 of 27
2/13/08 at 6:50am
I thought potatoes orginated in Peru? But that was under the inca.
more than taste fine
me eat it all the time
Reply
post #5 of 27
2/13/08 at 7:23pm
Potato from Ecuador, then developed in other SouthAmerica and MesoAmerica regions thousands years ago.
Reply
post #6 of 27
2/13/08 at 7:38pm
I would say that modern-day Americans (North, Central and South) are fortunate to have so much culinary history to work with. I can only guess what I would do without all of the above.

I certainly would miss all that. Los Indios did so much that benefitted us and if I didn't have tamales or potatoes or chiles, I would be lost.
Reply
post #7 of 27
2/23/08 at 11:06am
Tamales rule, indeed.
Reply
post #8 of 27
2/23/08 at 5:02pm
How could Mexico not be in Latin America? I think you're confusing Latin America with Central, Meso, or South America. Latin America comprises a language group as much as a geographical grouping. For instance, the Spanish speaking Caribbean islands including Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Cuba are Latin American countries.

How can anyone segregate any of the foods out. They're all very important, and all have a profound effect on world cuisines.

I wonder about pepper's inclusion, though. Pepper -- as in black pepper -- wasn't unique to the western hemisphere. And, although a great many chile peppers are indigenous to the new world, as a group, they were well known in the old world. Nevertheless, because salt would be lonely in a world without pepper, I dutifully ticked the circle.

BDL
What were we talking about?
 
http://www.cookfoodgood.com
Reply
post #9 of 27
2/23/08 at 6:06pm
:smoking:OIC
What were we talking about?
 
http://www.cookfoodgood.com
Reply
post #10 of 27
2/24/08 at 4:46am
You forgot to include sugar cane.
In my view, along with tobacco, potatoes and cacao, had the most impact, the fastest, on European culture as any agricultural item indigenous to the Americas.
Sugar production and cacao production grew up together.

www.foodandphoto.com

Liquored up and laquered down,
She's got the biggest hair in town!

Reply
post #11 of 27
2/24/08 at 6:50am
"And, although a great many chile peppers are indigenous to the new world, as a group, they were well known in the old world. "

Not so, Boar_D_Laz.

Chile peppers (Capsicum sp.) are native only to the New World, with probable centers of origin in Mexico, Central America, and South America. They were exported by the Spaniards, and quickly spread throughout the known world.

There are five domesticated species, and 20-odd wild species as well.

What we call black pepper (Piper nigrum) isn't really a pepper at all, but the berry of a climbing shrub which originated in southern Inda. Black pepper has been a major part of the spice trade for time out of mind.
They have taken the oath of the brother in blood, in leavened bread and salt. Rudyard Kipling
Reply
post #12 of 27
2/24/08 at 6:58am
KY

You're right about capiscum and piper

BLD
What were we talking about?
 
http://www.cookfoodgood.com
Reply
post #13 of 27
2/24/08 at 9:13am
I voted cacao but I didn't realize I could choose more than one. :blush: There are so many influences on the culinary world from Latin America, it's hard to pick just one, especially having a limiting survey on it.
It's a wonderful thing to be spoiled in the way of food.
Reply
post #14 of 27
7/19/08 at 3:15pm
Chewing Gum.
tziclti > chicle > chiclet
Reply
post #15 of 27
7/19/08 at 5:17pm
I assumed pepper meant chili pepper. And tomatoes came from there also.
Reply
post #16 of 27
7/19/08 at 6:06pm
In what way has tobacco influenced the culinary world?

scb
Reply
post #17 of 27
7/19/08 at 6:34pm
Weren't turkeys indigenous to North America as well?

mjb.
Reply
post #18 of 27
7/19/08 at 8:43pm
Yes. Still are, but I promised not to talk politics.

BDL
What were we talking about?
 
http://www.cookfoodgood.com
Reply
post #19 of 27
7/20/08 at 2:22pm
The original poster included strawberries in his list of “others”. Would somebody enlighten me? I didn’t think that strawberries were among the “New World” foods. Were the strawberries known the in “Old World” the same as our “modern” strawberries? I know that I am often confused about a variety of things :crazy:, but I thought there were strawberries in Europe long before 1492.
Reply
post #20 of 27
8/5/08 at 9:47pm
Has not influenced.
Have you tasted jicama?
Reply
post #21 of 27
4/12/12 at 11:45pm
Thread Starter 

Cacao and pepper are winning.

Reply
post #22 of 27
4/13/12 at 2:35am

 heck of a lot of fruit and veges come from South America.  (Chili)

Chef EdB
Over 50 years in food service business 35 as Ex Chef. Specializing in Volume upscale Catering both on and off premise .(former Exec. Chef in the largest on premise caterer in US  with 17 Million Dollars per year annual volume). 
      Well versed in all facets of Continental Cuisine...
Reply
post #23 of 27
4/13/12 at 6:18am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gummy-Bear View Post

I voted cacao but I didn't realize I could choose more than one. :blush: There are so many influences on the culinary world from Latin America, it's hard to pick just one, especially having a limiting survey on it.


Heh.  Me too.  My second vote would have been the potato.

Reply
post #24 of 27
4/13/12 at 7:41am

 

 

Products from Mexico and Perú:

 

Tomatoes, potatoes, cacoa ( chocolate bean), and chili peppers ... They were brought back to the Iberian Peninsula by the Conquistadors ... Then they traversed the European continent, from Spain to France, to Italy, the British Isles, Holland and Beligum ( no order specified ).

 

Mexico and Perú were the countries predominately involved.

 

Of course, the Portuguese, the French, the Dutch and the British all had their hand in the melting pot as well at different points in time.

 

 

Have a nice wkend.

Margcata, Eternally the product
(3 photos)
Globetrotting Journalist Margaux Cintrano
(21 photos)
 
Reply
post #25 of 27
4/13/12 at 8:25am

I originally didn't see Corn and that would have been my top choice over cacao (can I have a do-over :D)?  Those 3, to me at least have been traced back to the mentioned parts of the world and are essentially staple foods (cacao being the exception as a staple but to many its value cannot be understated in other words I feel cacao would trump peppers and tomatoes).  Obviously all are important and have their place, but when I think of the word "impact" it conjures in my mind preliminarily how much, how widespread and how valuable. 

Reply
post #26 of 27
4/13/12 at 1:36pm

Let us not forget. Cocaine and Grass, and that does influence the culinary world.

Chef EdB
Over 50 years in food service business 35 as Ex Chef. Specializing in Volume upscale Catering both on and off premise .(former Exec. Chef in the largest on premise caterer in US  with 17 Million Dollars per year annual volume). 
      Well versed in all facets of Continental Cuisine...
Reply
post #27 of 27
7/19/12 at 7:53am
Quote:
Originally Posted by boar_d_laze View Post

I wonder about pepper's inclusion, though. Pepper -- as in black pepper -- wasn't unique to the western hemisphere. And, although a great many chile peppers are indigenous to the new world, as a group, they were well known in the old world. Nevertheless, because salt would be lonely in a world without pepper, I dutifully ticked the circle.

BDL

I think the item is referring to bell peppers.

About chile peppers, I didn't know they were known in the old wold, do you have some examples?

Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Food & Cooking

Featured Stories on ChefTalk.com

Follow ChefTalk on Pinterest!
The Making of a Chef Innovator, without the Pomp
A clinical look at how a restaurant runs
ChefTalk.com › ChefTalk Cooking Forums › Cooking Discussions › Food & Cooking › ¿Main product foods from LatinAmerica?